When your prequel makes more money than the previous movies, you make another one. That's the short lesson behind Universal and Blumhouse plotting (and dating) a fifth installment in the Purge series. Yes, this generation's most timely (and unfortunately accurate) mainstream cinematic political parable this side of G.I. Joe: Retaliation or Our Brand Is Crisis is getting another go-around. James DeMonaco's "What if crime were legal for 12 hours one night every year?" high concept franchise will continue on July 10, 2020, not quite on July 4th weekend (blame Minions 2 which is opening on July 3), but close enough. Yes, this violent horror/sci-fi/thriller franchise has truly become a fitting way to "celebrate" our nation's birthday over the last few years, and now we're getting another one (right against Jason Reitman's Ghostbusters).

The First Purge, directed by Gerard McMurray, mutated the franchise a bit and used the comfort/safety of a brand to tell an unapologetic racial revenge story, as the origins of the first "Purge Night" were laid out as a way for right white dudes to bribe/cajole poor black people into murdering each other. No spoilers, but the film eventually became a kind of fantastical "Rosewood, but with a happier ending" action thriller. And it also earned $137 million worldwide on a $13 million budget, becoming the biggest installment thus far in a series that has outearned its predecessor each time out.

The Purge grossed $83 million on a $3 million budget in 2013, while The Purge: Anarchy earned $112 million on a $9 million budget in 2014 and The Purge: Election Year earned $119 million on a $10 million budget in July of 2016. Yes, Purge: Election Year ($79.2 million) s still the domestic high-water mark, followed by Purge: Anarchy ($72 million), First Purge ($69 million) and The Purge ($64.5 million), but the franchise has been domestically consistent over four installments in six years. In another case of debunking conventional wisdom, First Purge starred a mostly black cast of (comparative) unknowns and yet vastly outpaced its predecessors overseas ($67.5 million versus over/under $40 million for the two previous Purge sequels). All told, the franchise has earned $456.8 million worldwide on a combined $35 million budget.

Alas, I cannot confirm whether this fifth chapter will be another prequel or a sequel set after Election Year, which (spoilers) ended with Purge Night being canceled after "not-Hillary Clinton" won the presidential election against "not-Donald Trump" (or, more accurately, "not-Rick Santorum"). Yes, in 2016, American voters helped turn a frigging Purge movie into a wish-fulfillment fantasy. Nice work there, folks. Nor can I confirm whether either James DeMonaco (who wrote all four films and directed the initial trilogy) or Gerard McMurray (who is allegedly helming one of 4,071 projects which Michael B. Jordan currently has in development) will be involved, but I'd be shocked if DeMonaco isn't around in some capacity.

Although if Blumhouse has interest in handing it over to another "not a white guy" director, they have plenty to choose from via the first season of USA's already-renewed (and pretty decent) Purge TV show. So if we end up with a new Purge movie directed by Nina Lopez-Corrado, Clark Johnson, Anthony Hemingway, Tara Nicole Weyr or Ernest Dickerson, you heard it here first. Okay, so all we have is a release date (July 10, 2020). A title, a plot, where it exists in the continuity and who will be writing and directing it will be questions to be answered at a later date.

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